The Sun Always Rises
by LunaRowena
Summary: "I joke about my dead god a lot because it's how I… make do, I guess. But part of me's never believed that he's really dead. I mean, the sun still rises in the morning."


Pillars Prompts Weekly #0008: Edér, Temple, Sunrise

The forest was peaceful below. Lillian sat with her legs dangling off the edge of the walkway, surveying Hearthsong beneath her as she scratched the ears of her wolf, Gideon. The rest of her companions were still sleeping inside the Celestial Sapling but she, well, she and sleep hadn't been getting along for a long while now. But that did mean she got to see some beautiful sunrises. Since she had been young, watching the sun come up had been one of her favorite things. No matter where she traveled, what new bird song or foliage or mountains surrounded her, it was always the same sun casting light in beautiful new ways. Today the rising light painted soft clouds in orange and pink, looking almost appetizing. It was times like these she felt like saying a prayer, not that the god of light would hear it. He hadn't heard anything in fifteen years and it was only as she'd gotten older that she'd started actually caring about praying instead of reciting what she was told. She smiled to herself. If Edér were here he'd tell her to pray anyway, probably, that it was the act that counted more than the god listening.

She looked up as Gideon gave a small whine to see the man himself approaching. "Think of him and he arrives. You're up early."

"You're up earlier." Edér sat down on the other side of Gideon and gave him a scratch under the chin. "Who's a good, fluffy, boy?"

Lillian sighed and shook her head. "You do know you are the only other person he tolerates that from?"

"Tolerates? He loves it!"

She had to admit he wasn't wrong. Gideon looked thrilled with the double attention, his tail thumping loudly.

"You should teach Itamuk to like pets this much," he said in mock seriousness to the wolf. "Oh, sorry, did I stop?" he asked as Gideon just licked his hand as a response.

"It's a heavy commitment," she said, trying to keep a straight face, "once you start you can never stop."

"Somehow I think I'll manage to carry this burden," he said as he switched to stroking the wolf's back. "Speaking of burdens," his voice softened, "you are up early. More trouble sleeping?"

"Yeah." She looked away out at the forest. "Same old dream. Pillars of Adra towering over me. Came out here 'cause I didn't need to wake anyone else up. Besides, I like watching the sunrise."

"It is pretty," he agreed. "Matches your hair."

Lillian snorted. "My hair is nowhere near that orange!" she objected as she turned back to him, "And congratulations on being the only person who thinks I'd look good in pink."

"Who says you look bad in pink?"

"It clashes awful with my hair."

"Well, the sunrise looks nice, don't it? Tell you what, after we stop Thaos and get back home, you should throw a big, fancy party at Caed Nua and wear a fancy, pink dress and you'll look beautiful. Although I won't tell you so since I guess I'm not allowed to compliment you without being told I'm wrong."

She couldn't help it, she laughed. Gideon wagged his tail more vigorously.

"There, that's better. You were looking all… broody before. And thinking about me apparently?"

"About Eothas, really."

Now it was his turn to sigh and look off into the distance. "Yeah, I've been thinking about Eothas, too."

She studied his profile in the early sunlight and waited for him to continue, but he seems to be waiting for her to prompt him. "What about?"

"Y'know how yesterday in Teir Evron there were all those symbols of all the different gods in the floor?"

"Yeah." There was a reason it was called the Council of Stars. When the group had walked into the temple room, the floor had lit up with constellations.

"There was a symbol for all the gods, except there weren't one for Eothas."

"Really?" She tried to wrack her brains, but to no avail. She hadn't paid a large amount of attention to picking out all the gods from the floor, just noting that they were all – or if what Edér said was true, mostly – there. "But Woedica was there. I know Woedica was there. How could Woedica be there but not Eothas?"

"She's less dead? I dunno." He sighed and his hand on Gideon's back came to a standstill. "I joke about my dead god a lot because it's how I… make do, I guess. But part of me's never believed that he's really dead. I mean, the sun still rises in the morning. If Eothas, the god of light and rebirth was dead, would the sun still rise in the morning? And the candles, the candles down in the Temple of Eothas in Gilded Vale were still burning when nobody's been down there in over a dozen years. How else is that possible? But to be completely missing from the rest of the gods…"

"And yet the sun always rises in the morning," she finished softly as her hand found his on Gideon's back. They sat in silence that way for a bit, staring off at the sunrise.

"We could ask our friendly, neighborhood priest what it means," she said, "if he wasn't so…"

"Insane?"

"I was going to say 'ornery.'"

"I think I just gotta assume it means what it looks like it means," he said.

"What I was thinking about," she said slowly, "before you got here, was about praying to Eothas. And the futility of it. And how I thought you'd tell me to do it anyway because it was the act, and the belief, that mattered more than if he was really listening or not. You've said before that you still follow him because you think he's worth following."

"Yeah," he said. "Redemption is always worth believing in." He moved his hand away from hers and started stroking Gideon again. "So maybe he's dead but the sun is still rising and redemption is still worth it and that… that has to mean something, doesn't it?"

"Maybe." Lillian started stroking Gideon again herself. "Maybe it means that all these things don't exist because of Eothas. That they can exist without him because they're still worth it."

"Maybe." He looked back at her and gave a forced grin. "I guess time will have to tell. But first we need to worry about getting you sane again. Then we can speculate all we want about my dead god and the meaning of life."

"It is a bit early. I don't know how I could possibly talk about the meaning of life before breakfast."

"Well, the sun's mostly up now."

"So it is. Time to wake the others and get breakfast?"

"Hmm. Or we two – three," he said glancing down at Gideon, "could get breakfast and make Sagani deal with Aloth in the morning."

"That idea is too tempting to pass up."

Edér stood and then offered a hand down to Lillian. "After you, my lady."

She grabbed his offered hand. "Edér, we are not at Caed Nua I will smack you."

He grinned. "I'd like to see you try. Now when you're threatening to shoot me, that's when I'll be afraid."

"Then don't do anything that's worth shooting."

And so the two bickering friends walked off, the bright sun shining in the sky above them.


End file.
